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Nathan Lauster

@lausterna.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.3K following 1.4K posts

UBC sociologist, demographer, housing & urban regulation scholar, author, immigrant, blogs at homefreesociology.com

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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 17m
For the past week, I've heard a lot of people say "provincial and municipal elections happening at the same time is confusing, especially since I don't fully understand what a city is in control of." So, I did a four minute explainer piece to try and help www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqlh...
youtube.com
What municipalities can and can’t do in B.C.
YouTube video by CBC British Columbia
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Good moon out there! (mediocre iphone from window pic notwithstanding)
Moon peeking out from behind a tree over Vancouver skyline
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is great, and hits a genuine area of confusion for many folks! Only note I'd add is that the Province also has a role in mandating more housing near transit (and the BC NDP actually delivered on that with Bill 47, though lots of room for improvement). www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/h...
www2.gov.bc.ca
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 25/09/2026
@onecityvan.bsky.social posted their housing platform. Lots to like: more housing options, more non market housing, better support for renters. Also, they're calling for affordable & accessible flats (like our Four/Five prototype 👇) to be allowed everywhere we already allow plexes and large homes.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Dr Grace S Peng @gspeng.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"The Martins...use their fireplace almost every day during colder months. But that will have to end when the new duplex is built next door...because provincial rules stipulate that chimneys must be at least two feet above neighbouring structures." They use a fireplace in a downtown area? 😱
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Robert Jago @rjjago.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A Vancouver-area First Nation has issued a travel advisory for the US, after members were detained by ICE.
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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Strange article from Strong Towns on "filtering". Fundamentally, they do not believe in indirect spillover effects, where adding high-end supply can reduce low-end rents. Instead, we have to intentionally and directly target the low-end. 1/
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Remember as we head into a potential double-header of an election season: If your ONE is OneCity, you're sitting pretty. If your ONE is OneBC, you've messed up, buddy.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Jens von Bergmann @jensvb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
2024 Canadian Housing Survey data came out today, lots of things to look through. One item that will likely get people talking is forced moves. It's a difficult metric to interpret, but there seems to be a COVID dip and now a jump in 2024 across all regions. canviz.mountainmath.ca/plot?v=13757...
Forced moves in past 5 years.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Went to CBC to catch up on the BC Conservatives' implosion, and discovered a new Eden Robinson book is coming! I'd pretty much call that a win-win. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Author Eden Robinson blends North Coast culture with fantasy in Sorceress of the Sky Serpents | CBC News
Sorceress of the Sky Serpents is the North Coast author's first book since the highly-acclaimed Trickster series and once again blends the Haisla and Heiltsuk cultures of the Pacific Northwest with th...
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I like how the Anna's Hummingbird has its wing raised up protectively here, like I'm too young to know about what the birds and the bees get up to with flowers.
Iridescently green Anna's hummingbird with wing raised up over it's head and beak pointed toward a very orange Scarlet Runner bean flower.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is fun to play around with in housing discourse as well, where it drives interesting generational divides. Young adults often don't have their own anchor points for Natural Housing Prices, but the anchor points they might get from their parents can suggest things are way, way off.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Painted Lady on Beach Pea in Vancouver this morning. Haven't seen all that many this summer, but apparently the Ladies tend to cycle with El Nino events. So maybe a mega-boom of them next summer to go along with the mega-El Nino coming our way? www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2...
An orange and black and white Painted Lady butterfly on pink Beach Pea flower in Vancouver, set against a laurel plant that the beach pea is using for emotional support.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
You know the few remaining BC Conservatives are already gearing up their scary Halloween voices to announce: "Under the current leadership PCT can only mean Politically Correct Time, and we won't stand for it!" [cue KLF's "3 AM Eternal" music] news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...
news.gov.bc.ca
No falling back with B.C.’s new time zone code, Pacific Time: PCT
PCT abbreviation establishes province’s single, year-round time zone
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 15/09/2026
With three of Sen̓áḵw’s 11 towers now complete, the development is already dramatically reshaping Vancouver’s skyline, and provoking plenty of chatter about its scale, density and ambition. thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...
thetyee.ca
Inside North America's Largest Indigenous-Led Housing Development | The Tyee
The vision underpinning the architecture of Sen̓áḵw.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Skål!
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"[B]ecause property taxes are wealth taxes, property owners have responded to their increasing wealth with political anger, pushing shifts in property tax policy, often leading to increasing rates on commercial property owners who have seen declining values during the same period."
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 15/09/2026
@sightline.org takes a look at the province’s TOD density overrides and what the results have been. (I’ll add a few thoughts below) British Columbia’s Transit-Oriented Housing Law: A Progress Report www.sightline.org/2026/09/14/b...
sightline.org
British Columbia’s Transit-Oriented Housing Law: A Progress Report | Sightline Institute
Bill 47, a provincewide push for more homes near transit, is two years old this summer. It’s making an impact, but it needs more teeth.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Vancouver real estate ad from 1907: "The C.P.R. is a belt around the world and Vancouver is the buckle... We all of us ought to take a moment or two every day to hug ourselves in self-congratulation that we live in this glorious city." Example property for sale:
One lot and a half on Burrard street, close to Georgia; size 37.5 feet by 122. Large nine-room house, rents for $30 per month. Also stable. Price $6500. Terms $3500 cash, and balance payable at $1000 per year.

Example of house for sale in Real Estate Ad from March 16, 1907. p. 14 of Daily Province.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
"Five animals were examined in the study: elk, mule deer, coyotes, grizzlies and black bears." This is how you know a study was paid for by Big Moose. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Elk involved in nearly two-thirds of aggressive encounters in national parks, study finds | CBC News
Researchers analyzed Parks Canada data collected from 2010 to 2023 on aggressive wildlife encounters and what people were doing when they occurred. The researchers found that quiet activities like hik...
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Reasonably certain it doesn't count as stalking when the target is the small local organic grocery store you've been waiting to open for business since FOREVER... (also: omg, look's like Be Fresh is finally opening at 10th & Alma)
Someone stalking newly installed shelves and refrigerators at the Be Fresh Market store at 10th & Alma.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Once you stop trying to convince yourself that all of your policy preferences are secretely really popular if explained in the right way, you will be released from samsara
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Love these old newspaper cartoons summarizing these strikingly familiar events of the day in Vancouver on August 22, 1908. Brush Fires Needing Rain Vancouver Liberals Needing a Sacrificial Candidate Americans Race Riots
Cartoons run in the Vancouver Daily Province from August 22, 1908 to summarize major news events, including a woman sitting on a burned out stump and hoping for rain, the Vancouver Liberal Association looking for someone to poke their head into a hangman's noose and run as their candidate, and Uncle Sam looking up at a besmirched US Flag noting race riots in Springfield, Ill.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Owen @oweninvan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
TIL Canada Post is trying to build an Amazon marketplace competitor. canadashops.ca
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Apropos of nothing, here's the spot in the Act to incorporate the City of Vancouver (s22.2) where they directly outlaw offers of money to voters for returning people to the City Council. Corruption in politics was a big concern back in 1886.
Vancouver City Incorporation Act (1886) - Every person who directly or indirectly by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes and gift, loan, offer, promise, or agreement, as aforesaid, to or for any person, in order to induce such a person to procure or endeavour to procure the return of any person to serve in any Municipal Council, or to procure or prevent the passing of any such by-law as aforesaid or the vote of any voter at any municipal election or for or against such by-law.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Jens von Bergmann @jensvb.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
CanViz graphs update automatically when new data is released, check out the new asking rents data that came out today by opening a previously made graph.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
TIL Max Weber was writing about "grandiose booty communism" at least seven decades before the later musings of Sir Mix-a-Lot.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is a @wazaroff.bsky.social appreciation post. Thank you for putting yourself forward to serve! Took a lot of guts and heart. Good work.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I love Vancouver, but every now and then I miss New Mexico. And even if it doesn't happen often, every once in awhile Vancouver's like, "check it out! I can do New Mexico too!" And yeah, not bad...
Sunset reflecting off a cityscape that looks like the red-walled mesas of New Mexico
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Owen @oweninvan.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I think it needs to be said: OneCity has been the ONLY party willing to stick their necks out to reduce carbon emissions, especially on land use policy, where City Hall can actually make a difference (& where it's cheaper than free)
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Neat project below on UK badgers & bovine tuberculosis. But every time I see a European badger, I just can't help but go "awww... look at you!" and then I think about the time I was chased up a fence-post by one of their bad-ass North American cousins because I just happened to look at it wrong.
North American badger: bad-ass, metal. Once tried out to be drummer in KISS but ended up badly injuring their bass player over a cigarette. Wants to bite your face off if only it could reach. Totally awesome.European badger. Friends with Mr. Toad. Writes seasonal poetry. Somehow I'm also supposed to believe they're the toughest thing in Redwall and adequate for the defense of Salamandastron.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Great news! Also: I had not made the connection that the formerly missing hiker is apparently artist Ola Volo's brother? I've totally got one of her prints hanging in my stairway! Neat stuff! www.olavolo.com
olavolo.com
Ola Volo
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
2025 Trip Survey Data out for City of Vancouver! Total trips still below 2019, but close to a return to mode share overall - though cycling has dropped a bit in the past couple of years, despite my inclusion as a regular participant in the survey. vancouver.ca/streets-tran...
Figure 22 from report (linked from website) showing mode share and total trip contribution 2013-2025 for City of Vancouver trips taken.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
So what you're telling me is sometimes it's the CANADIANS who are the "foreign buyers" at heightened risk of being scammed... www.cbc.ca/news/world/m...
cbc.ca
Arrest warrants issued in Mexico for duo accused in alleged condo scam | CBC News
A Mexican court has issued arrest warrants against the man and woman accused of defrauding a Canadian couple of their retirement savings through an alleged condo-flip scheme, CBC News has learned.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Went to Gallup looking for something else, but I like the fun little mystery they have in explaining de-coupling of personal housing affordability and perceptions of housing market 2006-2025. (My guess: more folks living at home with parents, so no "struggle") news.gallup.com/poll/713498/...
Positive association between personally affording shelter & satisfied with local affordability in 2008Slight negative association between personally affording shelter & satisfied with local affordability in 2025
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I have huge respect for Stephanie Allen. She's a real one.
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 02/09/2026
The National Zoning Atlas team is out with a blockbuster paper identifying major flaws with the Wharton Index, which has historically been the tool used by economists to make claims about zoning (e.g. Glaeser & Gyourko's 2002 paper on zoning & affordability, with >1200 citations, is based on it...)
papers.ssrn.com
It's time to retire the Wharton Index
Empirical research on land use regulation has a credibility problem. For two decades, studies linking regulation to housing costs, residential segregation, and
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
UBC announcing a bunch of strategic poaching from the US... news.ubc.ca/2026/08/eddi...
news.ubc.ca
UBC welcomes nine world-leading researchers through Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada program (Phase 1) - UBC News
Their work will strengthen Canada’s research capacity, train future talent and drive innovation in areas critical to global competitiveness.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Clouds have gone all cotton ball fluffy up there above my Rose of Sharon. Also maybe some kinda very light rainbow thingy closer to the sun on the right? Anyway, last day of August mood.
Rose of Sharon in pink and green to the left, fluffy cotton clouds and a slight rainbow thing in the sky to the right
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Humming along nervously in the province of Hudson Bay Comp... er... British Columbia. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | What It Took to Dismantle the Most Powerful Company in the World (Gift Article)
A playbook to curb the growing power of Big Tech.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Car-free Granville St. makes it super-easy to set up in support of even relatively low-key events, like today's Dutch Street Market.
Buncha people on car-free Granville Street near Smithe during the Dutch Street Market event, with downtown Vancouver around
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Reposted by Nathan Lauster
The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 28/08/2026
Canadians wonder if they can win trade war against famously self-sacrificing and unified Americans
thebeaverton.com
Canadians wonder if they can win trade war against famously self-sacrificing and unified Americans
OTTAWA - With tensions continuing to ratchet in the face of President Trump's unilateral trade war, Canadians are openly wondering how they will fare against the notably harmonious, disciplined, and s...
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Check out the double rainbow, Vancouver! Now... how to climb down to the pot of gold in my neighbour's chimney...?
double rainbow ending in neighbour's chimney
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Today, the courts are not trying to wokely atone for hurt feelings over past crimes; they are validating the legal agreements made between Indigenous people and the Crown over the past 300 years." Great piece here on a very real trend.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Good CBC court coverage (as always with Jason Proctor): www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... But I also appreciated BIV's piece including the tidbit that buyers seeking to back out included, "a barber, a massage therapist and the owner of a small office ergonomics startup": www.biv.com/news/real-es...
cbc.ca
Pre-sale purchasers in troubled Lower Mainland condo tower win battle to declare contracts invalid | CBC News
A B.C. judge has sided with dozens of pre-sale purchasers who claim the developer of a troubled Lower Mainland condo tower breached provincial consumer protection laws by failing to update them on the...
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I’d never heard this version before. God, the emotion she puts into it. youtu.be/CEPUxpR64YE?...
youtu.be
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
YouTube video by Dolly Parton - Topic
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GRIDS Vancouver @grids.reillywood.com · 25/08/2026
Fun little website. Vancouver results so far:
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
FWIW, this is also the pattern for a vibrant ecology of housing commentary in Canada.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Good quick summary of the case against the latest tariffs likely to be made in court and why they should succeed... at the same time as the tariffs remain absolutely destructive and poisonous to Canada-US relations.
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Nathan Lauster @lausterna.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Yep! This is what we've been watching all around us for the last hour-plus! Nice to get the view from the other side of the water...
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